With the introduction of electric cars, crash testing has to be rethought. In a conventional car with a gasoline engine mounted in the front, the crumple zones can also use the engine to help dissipate some of the energy. That’s not the case with an electric vehicle.

There is no big engine block in the front of these cars, but instead there’s a very big and heavy battery system in the rear. That’s a lot of weight moving forwards, and less energy dissipation in the front. So Volvo had to re-design the crumple zones to be reinforced while ensuring the batteries and electric cabling remained stationary in the rear.

As the crash video above demonstrates, they managed to perfect it and produce an electric-powered C30 that performs as well as the gasoline models in a 40mph offset crash.

Reader Comments

Martin

“In a conventional car with a gasoline engine mounted in the front, the crumple zones can also use the engine to help dissipate some of the energy. ”

I’ve heard the exact opposite. The engine block is a big rigid lump of metal that you want to get out of the way (by sliding it under the bulkhead). A crumple zone is supposed to absorb energy and would do that a lot better if there was no engine there.

Alex

Auto engineers of this Volvo electric car really make it to the best they can, I guess to “mimick” the fuel driven engine vehicles. Im wondering if the bed covers is still stationary after this crash test.